The Langoliers (1995)

helplessly drawn to peril-on-an-airplane films

And this is my favorite one, because, to me, Stephen King has come up with the most logical view of time travel: of course the past would be empty and silent and "over". Dean Stockwell overplayed his role, but was still the most likeable character in the group. Bronson Pinchot totally redeemed himself after that eighties-sitcom disaster, and Christopher Collet and Kimber Riddle did a realistic job of playing teens. (The only one who annoyed me was Patricia Wettig.) The filming was another issue; there were some glaring bloopers such as shadows of people moving beyond the Bangor airport's glass doors and a few cars driving in the streets of 'deserted' L.A.! The computer-generated Langoliers and sliced-and-diced airfield? Terrible. But the plot and dialogue were for the most part very loyal to the novella, which I have reread so many times it is falling apart. The most important thing here is to think of The Langoliers as science fiction and not horror, and Stephen King is capable of producing great stories in both genres! November 11, 2008

A Flight to Remember!

Flight 29 from LA to Boston is cruising above Colorado when most of the passengers and all of the crew suddenly disappear! The only folks remaining are 10 people who happen to be sleeping at the moment the aeroplane passed through a time-warp. Fortunately, one of these is a qualified pilot who's "dead-handing" to Boston for his estranged wife's funeral. Naturally, he takes charge of the remainder of the flight.

No contact can be established with any ATC tower and the radar shows no other aircraft in the vicinity. So the pilot tries the military frequencies but still finds nothing! Given that there are no lights on the ground, he diverts from Boston-Logan to a less busy airport in rural Maine. Bangor seems totally deserted and there's something strange about the atmosphere; it's lifeless, there's no echo, beer tastes flat and matches won't light! Each character is developed well; one of the passengers happens to be a mystery writer (like Stephen King, who wrote the novel on which the film is based). He essentially narrates the plot making it quite easy to follow. Another is a 12-year-old blind girl with supernatural powers of perception. There's an impatient, mentally unstable banker with an important business meeting in Boston and a British secret agent who tries to take charge in this seemingly impossible situation. How can they return to the time-warp with hardly any fuel on board? Will doing so return them to the correct dimension anyway? And how can they fly the aeroplane back through the time-warp while all 10 of them are asleep?

I haven't read the novel but it's a gripping storyline. Running to 3 hours, always split into two 90-minute viewings. The background music is well suited to the content and some of the camera shots are impressive for 1995. October 30, 2008

Great plot

The special effects are not very good, but the plot is outstanding. I was glued to the TV from start to finish. September 11, 2008

A movie quality television release.

4.5/5 The best parts of 'The Langoliers' are the acting and the directing. This never feels like a TV show. It feels like a solid theatrical release that is at times, inspired.

This isn't perfect of course, but the only flaws that stick out like a sore thumb are a few odd lines of flat dialogue. This all adds up to about 3 or 4 minutes of drag out of a three hour release. This is important, as 'The Langoliers' is all dialogue, like a stage play. In fact, this could be made into a stage play with little effort. So the fact that the dialogue is almost entirely solid is very important. It is not the best you will ever hear in film, but it is good enough, that top level acting talent will make it great. That is, fortunately, exactly what 'The Langoliers' has in David Morse, Dean Stockwell, and particularily Bronson Pinchot, who deserved an Emmy for his performance. His character stole the show throughout, and his scenes in particular, were the most inspired here.

The directing is fantastic, though my only qualm is that airplanes land with the head pointing up, not down. Also, people have criticized the characters for standing at times too long before taking action. I offer that people really do stand around in shock when faced with a traumatising experience. It never gets drawn out too long, and someone is always there to shake the character into sense. Otherwise, the director and camera people make this feel like a theatrical release at the A level rather than some low budget TV episode. The visual representation is at times inspired at a level of 'The Shawshank Redemption', though particularily surrounding the Craig Toomy character and in portraying an empty world.

The driving point about your enjoyment of 'The Langoliers' sits squarely in the believability factor. It has a particular take on time travel that you must be able to accept, or you will start finding sillyness in the film. It doesn't need to be a true take on time travel, just a creative one IMO, and 'The Langoliers' is creative. This film manages to explain its theories rather well, so true or not, it understands the ideas it presents. Is this as good as 'The Shawshank redemption' or 'The Green Mile'? I have a very hard time making that comparison. It's in a category of its own.

In closing, Bronson Pinchot puts on one of the most fantastic acting performances I have ever seen in a motion picture. Chances are, even if this film is not in your interest, you will appreciate his performance. It's a classic. June 9, 2008

I liked it!

Most of the reviews of this film have been less than great. Maybe I'm just a dull person, but I liked it. Good for one of those nights that TV offers nothing, which is getting more frequent. May 27, 2008

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